Geological Engineering Commons^™

Effects Of Depositional Processes On Strength And Compressibility Of Sediments Using Elastic Shear Wave Velocity, Wisam Razzaq Muttashar

Theses and Dissertations--Earth and Environmental Sciences

Depositional processes are the most critical, complicated conditions that govern sediment properties and their variations, which in turn significantly affect the geotechnical behavior of the sediment. The complexity of depositional and post-depositional processes, which results in a variety of depositional environments, makes constructing a plausible model for the consolidation process of sediments difficult. The mutual influence between the temporal and spatial variation of depositional environments with their resultant physical and mechanical properties cause several compression issues, such as consolidation settlement and land subsidence, which mostly occur in estuarine-riverine regions throughout the world.

The first aim of this study is proposing …

Investigation Of Long Term Pillar Stability In An Abandoned Gypsum Mine Based On Dissolution Models, Mohammadhossein Sadeghiamirshahidi

Dissertations, Master's Theses and Master's Reports

The abandoned Domtar Mine in Grand Rapids, MI underlies Interstate I-196. The mine operated for over 140 years, mining a 30-meter-deep, four-meter thick gypsum seam. In 2000, the mine was abandoned with the removal of the mine’s dewatering pumps allowing groundwater to flood the mine. The initial flooding resulted in saturating the mine pillars along with some amount of pillar dissolution. Overtime, gypsum dissolution would cease as the water becomes saturated with the gypsum dissolution products. The mine, however, is located adjacent to the Grand River and has groundwater moving through the mine resulting in the potential for continuing dissolution. …

Groundwater Transfer And Injection Pilot Project: Construction Of A Three Dimensional Groundwater Flow Model, Wesley Bluvstein

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The Mississippi River Valley Alluvial Aquifer has experienced substantial groundwater declines in eastern Arkansas and northwest Mississippi due largely to irrigation for rice corn soybeans and other water intensive crops. To alleviate groundwater decline and ensure future sustainability of water resources the U.S. Department of Agriculture has in conjunction with the U.S. Geological Survey and the University of Mississippi initiated studies to determine potential avenues of remediation. Options include improved irrigation efficiency installation of surface weirs inter-basin transfers and groundwater transfer and injection. This study develops a three-dimensional groundwater flow model of a withdrawal well adjacent to a river for …

Developing A Calibrated Seepage Meter To Measure Stream-Aquifer Interaction In The Mississippi Delta, Wesley J. Bolton

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The Mississippi Alluvial Plain (MAP) is a premier region for irrigated agriculture in the United States producing approximately 9 billion dollars in annual revenues. The region receives around 138 cm of precipitation annually; however irrigation is necessary to maximize crop yields as most of the precipitation does not occur during the growing season. There are 8 million irrigated acres within the Mississippi Alluvial Plain. The source of most of the irrigated water is the surficial aquifer in the Mississippi Embayment the Mississippi River Valley Alluvial Aquifer (MRVAA) and due to the reliance on irrigation for maximum crop yields recent potentiometric …

Development Of Lidar Assisted Terrestrial Radar Interferometry For Rock Deformation Monitoring, Ricardo Javier Romero Ramirez

Doctoral Dissertations

"Rock and soil slope movements cost millions of dollars annually. During the past few decades, engineers have relied on traditional methods to detect slope movements. These tools are valuable for small spatial areas but, may not be adequate or cost effective for large spatial areas. Remote sensing methods such as terrestrial laser scanning (TLS) and terrestrial radar interferometry (TRI) provide excellent spatial coverage, and with adequate post-data-processing software, sub-millimetric scale deformation sensitivity can be achieved.

This work will present a comparative experimental study between TLS and TRI. The comparative experimental study will allow us to achieve the two main objectives …

Thermomechanical Analysis Of Rock Asperity In Fractures Of Enhanced Geothermal Systems, Chao Zeng

Doctoral Dissertations

"Enhanced Geothermal Systems (EGS) offer great potential for dramatically expanding the use of geothermal energy and become a promising supplement for fossil energy. The EGS is to extract heat by creating a subsurface system to which cold water can be added through injection wells. Injected water is heated by contact with rock and returns to the surface through production well. Fracture provides the primary conduit for fluid flow and heat transfer in natural rock. Fracture is propped by fracture roughness with varying heights which is called asperity. The stability of asperity determines fracture aperture and hence imposes substantial effect on …

Evaluation Of Naturally Occurring And Anthropogenic Contamination In Missouri Streams, Christina Jane Sehrt

Masters Theses

"The goal of this study is to observe the values and variability of water quality parameters and benthic macroinvertebrates in watersheds with very little anthropogenic impact and to compare these values with those acquired in watersheds with more anthropogenic impact. The following five HUC 12-digit watersheds had very little anthropogenic impact and were considered "pristine": Rogers Creek, Mill Creek, Middle West Fork-Black River, Bee Fork, and Ottery Creek. Five largely urban sub-basins were also considered; these basins are: Grand Glaize Creek, Glaize Creek, Sugar Creek, Hominy Creek, and Grindstone Creek. For each watershed, both water quality parameters and benthic macroinvertebrates …

Detection And Elimination Of Rock Face Vegetation From Terrestrial Lidar Data Using The Virtual Articulating Conical Probe Algorithm, Kenneth John Boyko

Doctoral Dissertations

"A common use of terrestrial lidar is to conduct studies involving change detection of natural or engineered surfaces. Change detection involves many technical steps beyond the initial data acquisition: data structuring, registration, and elimination of data artifacts such as parallax errors, near-field obstructions, and vegetation. Of these, vegetation detection and elimination with terrestrial lidar scanning (TLS) presents a completely different set of issues when compared to vegetation elimination from aerial lidar scanning (ALS). With ALS, the ground footprint of the lidar laser beam is very large, and the data acquisition hardware supports multi-return waveforms. Also, the underlying surface topography is …

Electroósmosis: Un Método Para Mejorar El Suelo, Yenni Mariana Ramírez Mazo, Juan Pablo Osorio, Sergio Agudelo Florez

Articles

El suelo, ese que pisamos, recorremos, sobre el que construimos nuestras casas, escuelas, calles… ese en el que nos dicen que pongamos los pies cuando estamos algo distraídos, es más que simplemente tierra.

An Overview Of Smartwater Management System: Strategic Potential In Bangladesh, Muhammad Qumrul Hassan, Mir F. Karim, Nazrul I. Khandaker, Jowaher Raza

Publications and Research

Water loss management is becoming an increasingly important as supplies are stressed by population growth or water scarcity. A SmartWater system ensures optimum consumption and prediction of future water use. Bangladesh is one of the most vulnerable countries due to global climate change considering its rapid urbanization, inequitable land use, low income and greater reliance on climate sensitive sectors, particularly agriculture. Agricultural lands used for cropping and livestock rearing are more susceptible to degradation than non-agricultural lands. Most farmers irrigate through flooding, losing up to 75% of water to evaporation and creating a substantial drawdown of much needed water for …

Spatial And Temporal Storm Generation From A Stochastic View, Jiaxiang Ding, Josept D. Revuelta-Acosta, Engel Bernard

The Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship (SURF) Symposium

Precipitation is one of the most important parameters in the study of hydrology and most of the research has been done on daily storm generation. Current weather generation models are used to replicate daily or monthly time resolution, which is not able to show the variability within one day or one month. This project deals with sub-daily storm generation with finer resolution and more accurate estimation, which also requires an independent storm separation method. And the Monte Carlo correlated multivariate simulation is applied to compute the variables. The description is essential for soil erosion and water quality research. Another reason …

Demonstration Of The Gas Assisted Gravity Drainage (Gagd) Process In Carbonate Rocks., Alok Jiteshkumar Shah

LSU Master's Theses

The Gas Assisted Gravity Drainage (GAGD) process was developed and patented by Dr. Rao at LSU in the early 2000s. The process involves the use of several existing or new vertical injection wells to inject gas and use the natural segregation of reservoir fluids from the density difference and the gravitational forces to displace the trapped oil and mobilize the oil downwards to be produced by a horizontal producing well. The GAGD process can be implemented as a secondary or tertiary oil recovery method. Several physical model experiments have been conducted to demonstrate the effectiveness of the GAGD process for …

Hawai'i Wildlife Fund V. County Of Maui, Lowell J. Chandler

Public Land & Resources Law Review

In Hawai’i Wildlife Fund v. County of Maui, the Ninth Circuit held that the plain language of the Clean Water Act provides jurisdiction over indirect discharges of pollutants from a point source into groundwater that is shown to be connected to navigable waters. The court found that studies confirmed pollutants entering the Pacific Ocean were fairly traceable to the County of Maui’s sewage disposal wells. In affirming the district court’s ruling, the Ninth Circuit held that Maui County violated the Clean Water Act by discharging pollutants into a navigable water without the required permit. The court also concluded the …

Bathymetry Data For Lakes Azuei And Enriquillo, Michael Piasecki, Mahrokh Moknatian

Publications and Research

This data set supports and forms the basis for the development of Digital Bathymetry Models (DBM) for Lakes Azuei (Haiti) and Enriquillo (Dominican Republic). Bathymetric Data is typically acquired using Sonar devices that measure the depth at specific points along a boat track and for which the longitude and latitude is recorded. From the resulting point cloud one develop a seamless representation of the floor of the lake on either a raster set (which is what we have done) or try to use a contour (vector representation) model in which the depth contours appear as polygons or -lines. The raw …

Vertical Stress And Stability Of Interburden Over An Abandoned Pillar Working Before Upward Mining: A Case Study, Jinwen Bai, Guorui Feng, Shanyong Wang, Tingye Qi, Jian Yang, Jun Guo, Zhen Li, Xianjie Du, Zehua Wang, Yunlou Du, Yujiang Zhang

Faculty & Staff Scholarship

Upward mining of the residual coal seam over an abandoned pillar working is one of the effective measures to alleviate the contradiction between limited resources and increased consumption. Interburden stability over an abandoned pillar working plays a significant role in guaranteeing the safety of upward mining; however, it has not yet been extensively studied and understood. In this study, the vertical stress of the interburden over an abandoned pillar working was first investigated. The mechanical model of the interburden was established and the damage conditions were analysed. Then, the stability of the interburden over 38502 abandoned workings in Baijiazhuang coal …

The Role Of Dense Slurry In Achieving Zero Liquid Discharge, D.M. Timmons, Istvan Kovacsics

Coal Combustion and Gasification Products Journal Archive

The Coal Combustion Residual (CCR) and Effluent Limitations Guidelines (ELGs) rules pose significant technical and economic challenges for ash management and for treatment and discharge of flue gas desulfurization (FGD) wastewater at coal-fired power plants. Beneficial use is always a priority for ash, but only about half is being reused on a national basis, and the rest is destined for disposal. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency identified biological treatment as the baseline treatment technology for FGD wastewater in the ELGs. However, it is becoming evident that bioreactors exhibit high capital and operating costs, occupy significant space, and are sensitive to …

Compressibility Of Fly Ash Under Ko Loading: Strain Rate Effects In Constant Rate Of Strain Testing, Jaime A. Mercado, Luis G. Arboleda-Monsalve, Tarunjit S. Butalia, Pedro J. Amaya

Coal Combustion and Gasification Products Journal Archive

Coal combustion processes produce large volumes of fly ash. The compressibility of fly ash was studied using moist tamping and drypluviation methods to achieve different void ratios before subjecting the material to compressive oedometric Ko loading (i.e., zero lateral deformation throughout the test). The class F fly ash used in this research was produced at a Midwest U.S. power plant. The material was initially characterized with hydrometer and specific gravity tests, and maximum and minimum realizable void ratios were determined. The compressibility characteristics of the fly ash material were studied at four strain rates, 1%/h, 10%/h, 40%/h, and 100%/h, and …

Influence Of Flow Rate On Leachability, John L. Daniels, Gautham P. Das

Coal Combustion and Gasification Products Journal Archive

The leaching potential of coal fly ash is often approximated with laboratory-based methods that expose columns of compacted material to synthetic precipitation. While this procedure can simulate aspects of the field condition, it remains difficult to replicate site-specific thermodynamic and kinetic constraints on geochemical processes. This article explores one aspect that contributes to the field/laboratory disparity, namely, the influence of flow rate and intermittency. Seven column-based leaching experiments were conducted with the same ash but with different flow rates and intermittency (i.e., infiltration pulsing), and results were evaluated in terms of aqueous sodium, calcium, and chromium concentrations in the effluent. …

Kinetic And Thermodynamic Parameters For The Adsorption Of Methylene Blue Using Fly Ash Under Batch, Column, And Heap Leaching Configurations, J.H. Potgieter, S. Pearson, C. Pardesi

Coal Combustion and Gasification Products Journal Archive

In this article, the use of fly ash, a low-cost adsorbent, for the removal of a toxic cationic dye, methylene blue (MB), from aqueous solution has been investigated. Fly ash is a waste by-product generated from coal combustion. Contrary to many other reported investigations, the fly ash was not treated prior to the experiments for this investigation. The study was done in order to ascertain the viability of using the waste material to remove cationic dyes from wastewater. While MB adsorption has been described often in batch studies, batch, column, and heap leaching studies were carried out under the same …

Universal And Excavatable Controlled Low Strength Material Using High Loss On Ignition Fly Ash And Limestone Screenings†, James T. Locum, L.K. Crouch, Daniel Badoe

Coal Combustion and Gasification Products Journal Archive

Limestone screenings and high loss on ignition (LOI) fly ash are by-products that are stockpiling because of their unintentional production and the negative effects when utilized in portland cement concretes. The research objective was to investigate whether these by-products could produce controlled low strength materials (CLSMs) meeting the three types of Tennessee Department of Transportation (TDOT) 204.06 flowable fill specifications. TDOT defines these CLSMs as the following: general use, excavatable, and early strength. Each type is required to have an inverted slump flow of not less than 15 inches (38.1 cm) while meeting ASTM International D6024 at 24 hours. Because …

Failure Of The Alexander Dam Embankment And Reconstruction Using Drainage Mitigation On Kauai, Hawaii, 1930-1932, Kerry D. Cato, J. David Rogers

Geosciences and Geological and Petroleum Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

Alexander Dam is a hydraulic fill earth dam and the second-highest embankment dam in Hawaii, having been built in 1929-1932 on the south side of the Hawaiian island of Kauai to provide irrigation for McBryde Sugar Company Ltd. It was constructed across Wahiawa Stream mauka (Hawaiian for "stream that comes from the mountains," literally "toward the mountains"), upstream of Kalaheo, to store 800 million gallons (5 million m3) of water to irrigate sugarcane fields. The embankment dam was intended to have a maximum height of 125 ft (38 m), a crest length of 620 ft (189 m), and a maximum …

Probabilistic Regional Landslide Hazard Assessment For The Enguri Dam (Jivari, Georgia), Maria Diletta Acciaro

Dissertations, Master's Theses and Master's Reports

The Enguri Dam forms a reservoir in a seismically active area in the foothills of the Caucasus Mountain range near Jvari, Georgia. The slopes are steep, highly fractured, and weathered, which make them at risk to failure during or following extreme rainfall events. Hydroelectricity produced by the water retained by the 271-m dam provides almost half of the electricity for the country. The reservoir perimeter is more than 40 km and the surrounding slopes span an area of more than 30 km2. The size of the area and paucity of slope data have made slope-failure hazard assessment of the broader …

Analyzing The Life-Cycle Of Unstable Slopes Using Applied Remote Sensing Within An Asset Management Framework, El Hachemi Y. Bouali

Dissertations, Master's Theses and Master's Reports

An asset management framework provides a methodology for monitoring and maintaining assets, which include anthropogenic infrastructure (e.g., dams, embankments, and retaining structures) and natural geological features (e.g., soil and rock slopes). It is imperative that these assets operate efficiently, effectively, safely, and at a high standard since many assets are located along transportation corridors (highways, railways, and waterways) and can cause severe damage if compromised. Assets built on or around regions prone to natural hazards are at an increased risk of deterioration and failure. The objective of this study is to utilize remote sensing techniques such as InSAR, LiDAR, and …

John Frank Stevens: Panama Canal Mastermind And Pioneering Railroad Pathfinder, J. David Rogers, Lawrence M. Magura

Geosciences and Geological and Petroleum Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

John Frank Stevens began his civil engineering career as a rodman on a survey crew in Maine in 1872. He soon moved to Minneapolis, where he apprenticed himself, eventually becoming Assistant City Engineer. In 1876 he began working for railroads in the western United States. In 1882 Stevens began working for a contractor laying tracks for the Canadian Pacific Railroad in Saskatchewan. The next spring he became assistant engineer of location for the Canadian Pacific, completing the first transcontinental line linking Montreal with Vancouver in 1888. In 1889 James Jerome Hill retained Stevens as chief pathfinder for the new Great …

Imaging The Subsurface In Eastern Part Of Lake Chesterfield Using A Combination Of Geophysical Tools, Jiawei Li

Masters Theses

"The Lake Chesterfield North Dam in Wildwood city, Missouri has been leaking, more or less continuously since the dam was constructed in 1986 despite mitigation efforts in 1988, 1994, 1995, 2004, and 2005. Neither the grouting efforts in 1988, 1994, 1995, 2004 or 2005, nor the placement and rehabilitation of an impervious clay liner in 2005 has solved the problem. Indeed, in June of 2017, the water level in Lake Chesterfield dropped at an alarmingly rapid rate.

Prior to authorizing additional mitigation work, the Lake Chesterfield Home Owners Association (LCHOA) decided to acquire geophysical data across the dry lake bed. …

Three-Dimensional Modeling Of Nitrate-N Transport In Vadose Zone: Roles Of Soil Heterogeneity And Groundwater Flux, Simin Akbariyeh, Shannon L. Bartelt-Hunt, Daniel D. Snow, Xu Li, Zhenghong Tang, Yusong Li

Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering: Faculty Publications

Contamination of groundwater from nitrogen fertilizers in agricultural lands is an important environmental and water quality management issue. It is well recognized that in agriculturally intensive areas, fertilizers and pesticides may leach through the vadose zone and eventually reach groundwater. While numerical models are commonly used to simulate fate and transport of agricultural contaminants, few models have considered a controlled field work to investigate the influence of soil heterogeneity and groundwater flow on nitrate-N distribution in both root zone and deep vadose zone.

In this work, a numerical model was developed to simulate nitrate-N transport and transformation beneath a center …

Reliability-Based Designs Procedure Of Earth Retaining Walls In Geotechnical Engineering, Juan Camilo Viviescas, Juan Pablo Osorio, Julio E. Canon

Articles

The design and construction of foundations, retaining structures and slopes are usually based on deterministic formulations that do not allow the distinction between the natural variability and the inherent dispersion in the geotechnical parameters. Due to the inherent variability of the soil properties, there is a growing trend to implement reliability-based designs in geotechnical engineering to reduce design uncertainties by probabilistic methods. The reliability designs require the definition of the probability density functions of the geotechnical properties, as well as knowledge of the spatial variability of soils. This paper identifies the procedures, type of soil investigations, simulations and the most …

Modelling Tree Contribution In Susceptibility Analysis Of Shallow Llandslides, Roberto José Marín Sánchez, Juan Pablo Osorio

Articles

In this paper an assessment of shallow landslides susceptibility in a tropical and mountainous terrain is made. A method that allows to model slope stability over large areas is used. Tree contribution is quantified by means of three parameters: rainfall interception, root reinforcement and tree surcharge. A rainfall interception model is used to determine the rain available for infiltration and its temporal distribution during the simulation. The hydrological models included in TRIGRS are described, which allows to determine the pore water pressure depending on the initial conditions. This pore water pressure is used in the revised infinite slope stability model, …

Reliability Analysis Of Active Earth Pressure For Cantilever Walls On Mudflows And Residual Soils Of The Aburrá Valley, Juan David Castro, Juan Camilo Viviescas, Juan Pablo Osorio

Conference papers

According to the variability of the local geology of the Aburrá Valley, two geological strata with similar grain size distribution were analyzed. The geologies are composed of mudflows and residual soils from the San Diego stock in the Poblado neighborhood. These soils show a similar mechanical behavior in relation to the number of blows of the standard penetration test SPT. The analysis was carried out by reliability methods for the determination of the active earth pressure for the geotechnical design of a cantilever walls. The analysis consists in the variation of the height of the retaining wall between 1 and …

Geology Influence In The Slope Stability Analysis By Limit Equilibrium, Finite Elements And Random Finite Elements Methods, Juan Camilo Viviescas, Juan Pablo Osorio

Conference papers

Slope stability analyzes correspond to the evaluation of the safety factors commonly performed through the limit equilibrium and finite element methods. Due to the uncertainty of the geotechnical parameters, different statistical methods have emerged such as the limit equilibrium combined with the Monte Carlo simulation method and the random finite elements, which have been widely accepted in recent years. Normally, these analyzes are not performed taking into account the geological influence on the geotechnical properties, so in this work we proceed with the comparison of several geometrical typologies of slopes for mudflows and a residual soils of the Stock San …